Maker of Angry Birds Impressed, Not Enraged, by China Piracy

Angry Birds has become a widely recognized brand in China, thanks in part to unlicensed copies of the mobile game, toys based on its characters and other unauthorized merchandise on display in markets everywhere–but Peter Vesterbacka, CEO of Rovio Mobile, creator of the popular mobile game, isn’t angry about the knock-offs.

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An employee works near bags containing ‘Angry Birds’ mooncakes during the Hong Kong Food Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on August 14, 2011.

“China is our largest market, also our fastest growing” market, he said, speaking at Disrupt, a conference by Techcrunch held in Beijing this week. Dressed in a bright red Angry Birds sweatshirt and carrying an Angry Birds balloon, he said he’s been impressed by the unlicensed merchandise in China. He even joked that he may have to use them as inspiration and enter the business of “pirating the pirates.”

Mr. Vesterbacka said the Angry birds game has been downloaded 50 million times in China and he hopes to reach 100 million downloads, even though it isn’t as easy to access games on Google’s Android Market in China as it is elsewhere. Google’s Android Market is not pre-installed on many Android devices shipped through official channels in China.

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Angry Birds is also available in Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Mr. Vesterbacka said Rovio, which started in 2003, is now working to become an entertainment brand rather than a game company. In addition to its new merchandise business, its animation studio has created a number of shorts that have been viewed 200 million times on Youtube.

He said the company created 51 games before Angry Birds took off, and said the small Finnish company owed much of its success to what Apple has done in giving small developers a platform to sell their products directly to consumers without needing relationships with carriers or handset makers.

In China, Rovio is planning to continue launching products tailored to the market. Most recently, the company made a Moon Festival comic strip and released branded mooncakes just for its fastest growing market.

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